TV channel and cultural promoting body Sky Arts is offering to chance to see Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Barbican for a slashed price. As a result of Sky Arts’ involvement, 60 GBP10 (€13.60) tickets for each performance available via an online ballot, and a further 30 tickets for sale at the same discounted rate of GBP10 available on the door each day.
‘We firmly believe that the arts should be accessible to everyone – and it is wonderful that this hotly anticipated production of Hamlet will be open for so many more people to share,’ said Phil Edgar-Jones, director of Sky Arts.
Excitement around the Sonia Friedman production has been intense since the announcement in March last year that Benedict Cumberbatch – star of the Sherlock Holmes TV series – would play the title role, appearing alongside other well known names including Jim Norton asPolonius and Sian Brooke as Ophelia.
Directed by Oliver Award-winner Lyndsey Turner, the production will also be broadcast live in over 550 UK cinemas and 44 other countries as part of the National Theatre Live programme on 15 October.
A further 10 GBP10 tickets for Hamlet performances will be made available to charities that work with underprivileged children, taking the total number of GBP10 tickets to over 8,500 for the run. This is in addition to four educational matinee performances (on 10 and 30 September, and 7 and 21 October), offering another 100 tickets at GBP10, 300 tickets at GBP25, and the remaining seats at GBP35.
The lottery opened today at 10am, and runs until 10am on 16 June, with each entrant permitted to apply for up to two tickets. Successful applicants will be notified by email on 19 June. Hamlet runs at the Barbican from 5 August to 31 October.
